Suncity residents stop work on Aravali foothills

The alert residents of a private township — Suncity — in Sector 54 on Friday stopped “developers” who had come with bulldozers to clear the rocky terrain of the eco-fragile Aravali foothills for construction of housing units.

The alert residents of a private township — Suncity — in Sector 54 on Friday stopped “developers” who had come with bulldozers to clear the rocky terrain of the eco-fragile Aravali foothills for construction of housing units.

Later, the residents called the police who asked the developers to call off the work.

There has been a controversy over the land. The Haryana government had allotted plots — each measuring 60 square yards — to 150 persons belonging to economically weaker sections in 2004. The following year, a major portion of this rocky area was cleared making room for 113 plots. At this juncture, the residents protested and stopped the work. So, the rest of the plots could not be prepared.

“On Friday again, all of a sudden a bulldozer was seen removing rocks. The residents stopped the work and called the police. The Aravali range abutting the township is already an eco-fragile area and the mining is banned here. Nobody has the right to destroy the greenery and disturb the ecological balance,” said Abhey Poonia of Suncity RWA.

When contacted, the developers claimed that the bulldozer does not belong to them. According to them, those who came with bulldozers were original plot allottees. “We have nothing to say on this matter. Otherwise also, we have won the case in the SC that has ruled that the land in question is not part of the Aravali Hills,” said Sanjay Jain, the senior official with the developer company.

Anil Kumar the station house officer of the area said that he had called the people to the police station who had sent bulldozers to remove rock. “They are the original allottees of the plots. They wanted to clear the ground for constructing houses,” he added.